Utensils for manipulating food are relatively well known an typically include a fork, spoon, knife, spork or other utensil that are employed to manipulate food or for another useful purpose. Food utensils are typically utilized to avoid direct contact between the food and the user's hand, thereby preventing the user's hands from becoming soiled by the food or transmitting germs or other elements from the hand to the food. The food utensils are typically stored in a user's kitchen and washed following use or disposed.
Portable utensils are generally comprised of plastic forks, spoons, knives, sporks or other utensils that are relatively easy to transport. However, these plastic utensils are typically disposed following use as they generally do not hold up well to repeated cleaning processes. These plastic utensils account for a portion of the one million barrels of oil every day that are used to make the amount of plastic products used each year in the United States, including forty (40) billion plastic forks, knives and spoons that are tossed into the trash each year. These forty (40) billion plastic fork, knives and spoons take up space in landfills for thousands of years and cause a significant economic impact on the United States economy.
Cafeteria-style bins used at food courts, lunch rooms and restaurants that store forks, spoons, knives and other utensils are a potential health hazard. Patrons who dig through and touch these utensils in the community bins transmit substances that are on their hands onto the utensils. The utensils are subsequently used by unsuspecting patrons to eat their food who are exposed to bacteria or other materials left on the utensils by the previous patrons who rummaged through the utensils. This situation can be exacerbated in a school lunchroom where children potentially pass germs to each other through the community utensil bins. Any variety of substance can be passed from patron to patron when using these community bins.
Home utensils are typically constructed of a metallic material and are able to withstand repeated washing processes. However, these metallic utensils and even the plastic utensils are relatively bulky for daily transport by users and are relatively awkward for an individual to carry for personal use.
It would be desirable to design and construct a personal utensil that may be enclosed for transport to limit contamination while being small and light enough to transport for daily personal use. It is also desirable that these personal utensils function at a high level. The personal utensil and container of the present application addresses limitations of prior art utensils and is commercially marketed under the trade name Youtensil™.